Santa Maria

Santa Maria originates from Italy, where it was developed in 1951 in Florence by the renowned Professor Morettini through planned crossing of Williams, or Bartlett, and Coscia. Due to its early ripening, exceptional and highly productive bearing capacity, beautiful fruit appearance, and excellent transportability, it is one of the most popular and profitable summer pear varieties for commercial and intensive orchards throughout Europe and in our region. In practice, it is rightly referred to as a “pear factory.”

Santa Maria is partially self-fertile to self-fertile, but pollinators are recommended for more stable and higher yields. The presence of compatible pollinator varieties in the orchard is strongly recommended. Since it flowers very early in spring, its best and field-proven pollinators are Williams, Conference, Abate Fetel, and Beurré Bosc. It produces very high-quality pollen and is an excellent pollinator for other early varieties.

The tree is medium to highly vigorous, with a regular, moderately dense, pyramidal canopy and strong scaffold branches that bend in an arch under the weight of the crop. It enters full bearing extremely early, often producing its first fruit as early as the second year after planting. Once it starts bearing, it produces regular, stable, extremely abundant, and record-breaking yields. It responds very well to standard pruning and requires mandatory early and strong fruit thinning at the beginning of summer so that the crop does not become undersized and the tree does not enter alternate bearing.

It belongs to the group of early summer pear varieties. In our region and under continental climatic conditions, it reaches harvest maturity very early, at the end of July and during the first half of August, usually between July 25 and August 10, around ten days before the standard Williams variety.

Harvesting is carried out exclusively at the stage of technological maturity, while the fruit is still completely firm and light green. Timely harvesting is essential, because if the fruit becomes overripe on the tree, the flesh quickly loses juiciness and becomes mealy. Fruit harvested at technological maturity tolerates handling and sorting very well.

Its cold-storage ability is moderately good for an early summer pear. In conventional cold storage, it can be successfully kept for 1 to 2 months, while in modern ULO cold storage with controlled atmosphere it retains firmness and quality for up to 2.5 months. Due to its elastic skin and firm flesh at harvest, it tolerates packing and long-distance transport very well, without the risk of crushing, which gives it an advantage in early export. It is primarily a premium table variety intended for fresh consumption at the beginning of the season.

The fruit is large to very large, with an average weight of 150–250 g or more, uniform and regular, with an elegant pear-shaped form and a smooth surface. The skin is thin, glossy, and smooth, light green at harvest, while at full maturity during storage it turns an attractive lemon-yellow color, with a recognizable, gentle, and attractive pinkish-red blush on the sun-exposed side. The flesh is white, very juicy, tender, with a fine buttery texture, and completely melting in the mouth, with minimal stone cells around the seed cavity. The taste is refreshing, sweet, mild, and very pleasant, with a fine and discreet varietal aroma.

It is a moderately resistant variety. The tree shows good resistance to severe winter frosts. However, due to very early budbreak and flowering, its flower buds are highly sensitive to late spring frosts, so warmer and elevated sites should be selected. It is susceptible to fire blight, Erwinia amylovora, pear scab on leaves and fruit, Venturia pyrina, and pear psylla, Cacopsylla pyri, which requires regular, professional, and intensive preventive chemical protection during the growing season.

Our pear fruit trees are produced on highly compatible and certified rootstocks. Unlike other varieties, Santa Maria has exceptional and perfect natural compatibility with quince, so in our nursery it is grafted directly, without an interstock, onto the vegetative rootstocks Quince M-A and Quince BA-29, which guarantee early entry into bearing and ideal vigor control in high-density orchards, as well as onto generative wild pear rootstock, Pyrus communis, for poorer and drier soils.